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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

14 months

Here is what is going on with Noah this month according to babycenter.com;

At 14 months, your toddler understands many more words than she can say. Her spoken vocabulary likely consists of about three to five words, typically "Mama," "Dada," and one other simple word such as "ball" or "dog," but she learns the meanings of new words every day. As she starts to add words to her vocabulary, you'll notice that she looks for opportunities to practice them. Once she can say "dog," for instance, she'll look for dogs everywhere — in books, outside, on videos — just so she can point and say the word over and over again.

Rhymes, jingles, and silly songs are big hits with toddlers. If your 14-month-old is already speaking several words, encourage her willingness to repeat after you by singing silly or repetitive songs, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." As she becomes familiar with the refrains she'll chime in one word at a time and before you know it she'll be singing the whole song right along with you.

If your 14-month-old isn't speaking many words at this point, you can help her with the other two elements of language acquisition. When talking to your child, vary your tone, facial expressions, and hand gestures, all of which will help her understand the meanings of your words. Maintain eye contact when you talk to her so she learns to listen to you. And don't rush her when she is trying to use words — listen patiently and look her in the eye.

Now that your toddler can indicate her needs with actions and some words, expect her to use "tools" to help her communicate. She'll bring you her jacket to let you know she wants to go outside. Or she'll point to a CD that she would like to hear. She is trying hard to make you understand what she wants. And you can expect her to repeat many words she hears even though she doesn't know their meaning (so starting now you need to watch what you say, lest your little parrot repeat any swear words!).

Her ability to remember people, places, and events gets stronger every day. This month she may even be able to respond to two-part requests, such as to go to her room and fetch her shoes or a toy, or retrieve a lost pacifier.

Hide-and-seek is still very entertaining, especially if your 14-month-old gets to do the seeking. Here's a variation that's sure to evoke lots of laughter: Show your toddler a toy and then stash it in your pocket and ask her where it went. She has the cognitive power to realize that just because the toy is out of sight doesn't mean it's gone. She'll giggle as she searches your pocket, purse, or backpack to see where you've hidden the toy. You can also hide little toys in her own pockets and see how much fun she has trying to get them out.

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Noah is doing great. His vocabularly is increasing each week. I think he is up to about 20 (or so) words right now. Most often mama, dada, eat, walk, dog, light, go, bird, home, yellow, belly button, Noah, car, night night, poop, grandma, paw-paw, and a few others. Most of them he knows what they mean... for example, he'll point at a light, dog, or car and correctly identify them. But yellow is the one word that he says very frequently, that I don't think he has grasped the meaning of yet. Luke says it all the time, so Noah is just copying him. Noah frequently pulls up his shirt and points to his belly and says belly button. Now he also tells us when he has pooped. And when he starts getting tired and ready for a nap or bedtime he will say night night. At least once (but up to hundreds of times) every hour he will say eat.

Our kid is a bottomless pit, he eats most foods that we give him, and anything that he does eat, he'll eat as much of it as we are willing to give him. This month he had his first taste of chocolate (against our wishes) and grabbed a big hunk of chocolate cake off of the table at community group when we weren't looking. Now that he knows that stuff (dessert) that we haven't been giving him is good, I'm sure he'll beg even more. This month he also learned how to open the fridge (to my dismay), and how to help himself to food in there.

He knows where his ears, nose, and belly are and can point to them if you ask him. He tries to count to 5, usually leaving out a number or two, and with the numbers sounding a little bit mumbled.

He still doesn't/﻿ won't pay any attention to tv shows or movies, but when I was burning some videos of him onto cds for Christmas presents, he was fully engaged and getting a kick out of watching videos of his much younger self.